natal With The 'Full House' Twins
Every natal Eve, Dave Olsen, Ashley and Mary Kate's Father, cuts sponges into the shape of footprints, dips them in flour and makes little elf prints on the floor throughout the house. Outside, on the front lawn of the handsome 5,800-square-foot início in San Fernando Valley, he puts down prints around a sled-shaped section of the lawn. "The kids still believe that if they don't go to sleep, Santa's helpers won't come," says Dave. But they don't sleep for long. At 5:30 natal morning, Ashley and Mary Kate, 6, Elizabeth ,3, and Trent, 8, race downstairs and tear open the presents from Santa. You can bet it's the twins who wake up the house. "They knock on our door and come rushing in," says Dave. "They're shouting, 'The elves have been here. They've been here!" The twins do everything together-but they aren't identical. "Ashley is two minutos older than Mary Kate," says mother Jarnie. "She's the mais boisterous. But Mary Kate can be sneaky." "Money turns up missing from some of the other piggy banks and suddenly Mary Kate has accumulated most of the wealth," adds Dave. "We sit down, count it out, divide it up and put it back in the appropriate banks. And then she's benched for a while." This year's biggest Christmasmorning disappointment? Mary Kate won't get the pet of her dreams. You see, she fell head-over-heels in amor with a miniature pónei, pônei called Four-by-Four. The pónei, pônei costarred with her and Ashley in their upcoming TV movie, To Grandmother's House We Go, scheduled to run December 13 on ABC. In fact, Mary Kate formed such a friendship with the little brown animal that all she could do for months after the family returned from filming in Vancouver was talk about the pony. One day, Dave found her packing to visit the horse. Even now when asked how she feels about boys at school, Mary Kate replies, "I have crush on Four-by-Four." Sister Ashley's smile indicates she's mais interested in her classmates. Besides, she likes the pet she has: we have a criceto, hamster named Cocoa. I put him on my head and walk around," she declares. The twins' personality differences show up on the set of Full House, too. Their natures dictate which scenes they take. Ashley does those in which the character Michelle has to be tough and sassy. Mary Kate handles the mais sensitive scenes...most of the time. But last fall, when Mary Kate didn't want to do her share of dialogue one day-"remebering lines is a pain in the bottom," she says-Ashley took three extra scenes without a segundo thought. Disagreements on the set come only when filming involves eating ice cream or cake. To help the twins cope with all the demands of doing a series and to provide them with schooling now that they're in the first grade, there's an on-set social worker. Adria Later has been with them since they were six months old. The girls genuinely enjoy working on Full House. "If they ever decide they've had enough, that's fine," says Jarnie, "but that hasn't come close to happening. Vacation time they'll say, 'When do we go back?' It's like another family for them. But they may have already launched their segundo career-as singers. They've signed a million-dollar, multi-album deal, and their first album, Brother for Sale, is just out. "But we love,love our brother,' says Mary Kate quickly. Ashley's eyes just twinkle.
First Magazine, December 21, 1992
